Tastes Like Failure
Title: Tastes Like Failure
Pairing: Cat/Jade/Tori, (Jade/Beck, since they're still together when this happens)
Rating: PG
Chapter: 1/1
Word Count: 2290
Summary: Follow-up to Schemes Gone Awry
Author's Note: This took longer to write than I expected, but hopefully it's worth the wait. :)
Also Happy Birthday to thefantasmickah
Tastes Like Failure
Jade’s all too aware that her plans have a tendency of failing, miserably, but this one’s simple. It consists of avoiding Tori and Cat, like they’ve got Swine Flu, and maybe, just for good measure, clinging to Beck, like a fly on wallpaper. It’s so painfully simple, she’s positive even she can’t screw it up.
The next time she’s in school, it’s clear she’s not the only one with avoidance on their agenda, because whenever she catches so much of a glimpse of Tori, the girl is usually flying around the corner.
Beck is…understandably confused, because he never gets as far as raising his hand in a wave or finishing the girl’s name, before she pulls a Houdini. Last week, Tori was all but hanging off his arm, but now she won’t even share a hallway with him and spends class looking straight ahead.
That plan she had to get Tori far from Beck works, but unfortunately it works, like the Monkey’s Paw, a double-edged sword. Tori wants nothing to do with Beck for the moment, but Jade, though she’ll deny it, wants a whole lot to do with Tori…and Cat. She feels sick, a feeling that grows when Beck wraps an arm loosely around her shoulder, muttering under his breath about how strange Tori’s acting.
“She’s always been weird, Beck. You’re just noticing it now,” she states firmly, trying not to think about the things she’s only now noticing about Tori, things like legs and lips and dark eyes.
He scoffs, turning to her with amusement shining clearly in his eyes. “Just because you don’t like her, doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with her.
“Sure, it does,” she insists.
He stops walking abruptly, causing her to stumble uncharacteristically. She gives him a withering look that loses its edge under the force of his stare. “What did you do?”
If it were anyone other than her, they would have probably choked at his words. Fortunately for her the surprise didn’t project itself onto her features. “Nothing,” she says coolly. “It’s like I told you, she’s normally a freak. I haven’t done anything.” Other than encouraging some surprisingly pleasant girl kissing, which, really, would’ve happened at some party eventually, she continues mentally.
A year and eleven months is too long to be with one person, she muses as Beck doesn’t back down.
“Jade, please. Tori’s a nice girl, but I’m with you. I want to be with you. I just wish you didn’t go out of your way to make things hard on her.” He doesn’t, but his eyes are pleading silently with her, begging her to drop whatever he thinks she feels about Tori and fix things.
Without answering him, she turns on her heel, leaving him standing there behind her. Saying something, even if it is the truth, just to appease him wasn’t even an option.
……………
Her plan changes to include avoiding Beck. She can't take him looking at her with eyes that scream 'fix it.' Especially when there’s no chance she’s going to fix anything with Tori in the near future or ever, if she can help it.
Unfortunately, he's the least of her problems.
Tori's avoiding her, so all her efforts are thrust upon avoiding the only person who's seems entirely unaffected by that ridiculous improv.
Cat.
Everywhere she turns Cat's there looking at her with bright eyes and a matching smile, clutching at her hand and, like, leaning on her when she laughs too hard. She starts actively looking for tracking devices on her person. The Sky Store has just about every other obscure, unnecessary device known to man; Jade's not going to put it past them to have some kind of discreet, tracking device. She's certainly not going to put it past Cat to test out one of her latest buys on a friend without telling them, especially when she was supposed to have kicked the habit.
She never finds anything, so she's pretty sure if the Robarazzi were still around there'd be pictures of her running rather paranoid and invasive body checks at random.
Jade's positive she's going to snap the next time Cat turns up.
……………
The minute Cat brings up her floating underwear; Jade wrenches her hand out of Cat’s grip, even if it’s too late. She’s already imagining Cat and pale skin and a lot less clothes. A whimper works its way out of her throat and she looks longingly at the lockers lining the hallway, wondering desperately if she’ll forget all of this if she slams her head hard enough into one.
Then Cat’s fingers dance down the inside of her wrist and right back into Jade’s hands. “Jade,” Cat whispers tilting her head and stepping closer. It’s a total invasion of her personal space bubble, which is usually a lot bigger than others. Unfortunately, her thoughts have less to do with getting Cat to understand concepts like personal space and more to do with how close Cat’s lips are in relation to hers. Clearly, the proximity is affecting her brain, because she can’t stop looking.
At least until it doesn’t matter anymore, because Cat leans forward and she must be out of her mind for not stopping the other girl. Cat's lips brush hers, soft, but not tentative.
It's not an accident, there's no way the action can be misconstrued.
Cat pulls away, too soon, but with a grin on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes.
"Why'd you do that?" Jade's slightly dazed that can be the only explanation for why the words escape a breathy whisper and she doesn't step away.
Cat giggles and runs her free hand along Jade's jaw. "You gave me the signal."
The daze lifts, because she can feel a little of her normal self returning, the part of herself that usually spends her time with Cat giving the other girl odd looks rather than thinking of her lips. "The signal," she deadpans, raising her eyebrows and taking a step back to see the other girl better.
"Duh," Cat rolls her eyes, before shifting her gaze down and up again meeting Jade's eyes. Cat steps forward, and Jade can't help it, she glances down at Cat's lips again. Clearly, she thinks as Cat closes the gap between their mouths, that was the signal.
Her hand finds Cat's hip, and as she kisses back, she wonders when she lost all her self control. When they break apart this time, her heart's hammering hard her chest.
Common sense trickles in slowly and she looks away from Cat long enough to meet Tori's gaze.
Of all the people that could've seen them together, Jade's glad it is Tori, the one person who won't spill this secret throughout the school.
Tori's bright red, mouth slightly parted with wide, dark eyes. Jade doesn't find her attractive at all, or at least that's what she'd like to tell herself, but her grip on Cat is tightening as she tenses and she's thinking of what else she could do to make the blood beneath Tori's skin rush. She's never been as grateful for Tori as she has when the girl rushes away from her sight.
"Cat," she questions after a beat. Cat tilts her head up just slightly from its space on the crook of Jade's shoulder. "Do you kiss everyone who gives you the signal?"
"Of course not…just the ones I want to kiss," she replies and as if to prove her point, she cups the back of Jade's neck and draws her close.
……………
Let it be known that even though Cat quite obviously enjoys kissing Jade, she has priorities.
“Can I-”
“No,” Jade replies sharply.
“But, I’ve never juiced a salad,” Cat whines, pushing out her lower lip and tugging at Jade’s sleeve, like a petulant child.
Jade gives her a withering look.
Her lower lip juts out impossibly further. “Tori let me juice her bagel,” she mutters.
“And what’d you have to do to get her to let you,” Jade retorts, lips curling up into a sneer.
“I might’ve kissed her,” Cat admits sheepishly.
She wants to be furious.
She should be furious.
But, she’s not. Really, Jade’s got no room to talk. Not while dating Beck, and especially not while having the thoughts about Tori that she’s having.
It doesn’t stop her from frowning and standing, turning away to buy the time she needs to formulate a proper response to that answer. She strides to the refrigerator and she’s not the least bit surprised to hear answering footsteps, though it sounds more like Cat’s skipping.
Fingers quickly wrap around her wrist, tugging until she meets Cat’s apologetic eyes. “Are you mad?”
“No,” she says quietly.
“You seem mad,” Cat wheedles, reaching up to smooth her unknowingly creased brow.
Jade figures she must be doomed, because she can’t stop her lips from lifting slightly at the action. “I’m not mad,” she repeats, looking away with a sigh.
They’re quiet for several moments, moments where she can’t help but be aware of the easy way Cat’s fingers slide to her wrist to entwine in hers.
“You know, I don’t mind if you kiss Tori.”
Only idiots choke on air and their own spit.
Jade very abruptly finds herself lumped in with the idiots. “What,” she exclaims in a voice that isn’t the least bit hysterical.
“I know you want to kiss her, too, and I don’t mind. Actually, I kind of liked watching the last time,” Cat continues with a grin and a giggle.
“I don’t want to kiss, Tori,” she hisses. The denial is futile, she realizes as Cat gives her this uncharacteristically patient look.
“Then why do you keep giving her the signal, whenever you two are actually in a room together long enough anyway.”
Cat is much too perceptive when it comes to people, Jade decides as words fail her and Cat’s mouth turns up into a victorious grin.
……………
Even though, Cat’s clearly okay with her pursuing something with Tori, something that’s clearly never happening, Jade still pulls the other girl into the nearest closet or other enclosed space at just a glimpse of the dark-haired girl. It doesn’t matter if there’s class, or Beck, who’s still sporting those ‘go fix it’ eyes. She’d rather be late than sit through class frustrated, which has nothing to do with Tori or the way Cat sometimes leaves her to go ‘hang out’ with Tori.
Hang outs, which probably have less to do with movies, cleaning tennis balls, and juicing various items, edible or otherwise, and more to do smudging lip gloss and rumpling clothes.
She is not jealous.
Not of Tori, at least.
Not when Cat makes whoever she’s with the center of her world, even if she’s missing more class than she should.
For the moment it’s enough to be close enough to Cat to count her freckles, close enough to feel the other girl exhale against her lips, but close enough is never quite enough until there’s no space between them.
Her hands are just finding the curves of Cat’s hips when she hears the unmistakable rattle of the doorknob. The heart that had been beating so frantically in her chest mere seconds ago, feels like it stops for a beat as panic freezes her in place. Just as the door swings open, she finally disentangles herself from Cat, schooling her features into a widely feared glare.
The heat of her glare cools, before flickering back, like a trick birthday candle as she meets Tori’s curious gaze.
“Hey, Tori,” Cat exclaims, waving gleefully.
“Hi, Cat,” Tori responds, her fingers clench the doorknob uneasily, before she nods. “Jade,” she greets finally.
“What are you doing here?” Jade sounds defensive, and clearly, Tori sees this, because she shifts back a step, smiling nervously.
“You two weren’t in class, so Sikowitz send me to find you guys.” She shrugs then, biting her lip as her gaze turns to Cat.
It’s obvious when Tori’s eyes widen and she starts shaking her head, blood seeping into her cheeks, that it’s not Tori she should be paying attention to. When her head snaps to the side, Cat’s already smiling innocently at her, too innocently, and not unlike the smile she offered Jade after she’d juiced Jade’s salad when she wasn’t looking.
The door shuts with a snap and the normally spacious storage closet, suddenly feels too small.
“Cat, no,” she hisses.
Cat’s lower lip pokes out and Jade starts shaking her head, it’s a vehement denial, but Tori’s steps are still drawing closer. Jade worries as her nerves begin to settle against her will when Cat’s hand touches her, and in that moment, she curses Cat, because she wants to be angry and frazzled, but she can’t hold onto those feelings with Cat’s hand on hers. Her control’s slipping.
“You want this, so does Tori, and so do I. Live a little, Jade,” Cat pleads, mouth turning up on one side, fingers contracting between hers.
She bites the inside of her cheek until copper floods her mouth, but she meets Tori’s eyes.
“Please, don’t hit me,” Tori whispers when she’s barely an inch away. Out of the corner of her eye, Jade can make out Tori fumbling for Cat’s free hand.
The air between them is intermingling, like a shadow of how their lips will. Her hand finds Tori’s hip, reveling, for a moment, in how different she feels compared to Cat.
Tori’s eyes flutter, her trembling hand meets Jade’s cheek and steadies, as if her confidence has reappeared.
Jade knows with no small amount of certainty what comes next.
She doesn’t move away.
It tastes like failure, but nothing’s ever felt this good.
Pairing: Cat/Jade/Tori, (Jade/Beck, since they're still together when this happens)
Rating: PG
Chapter: 1/1
Word Count: 2290
Summary: Follow-up to Schemes Gone Awry
Author's Note: This took longer to write than I expected, but hopefully it's worth the wait. :)
Also Happy Birthday to thefantasmickah
Tastes Like Failure
Jade’s all too aware that her plans have a tendency of failing, miserably, but this one’s simple. It consists of avoiding Tori and Cat, like they’ve got Swine Flu, and maybe, just for good measure, clinging to Beck, like a fly on wallpaper. It’s so painfully simple, she’s positive even she can’t screw it up.
The next time she’s in school, it’s clear she’s not the only one with avoidance on their agenda, because whenever she catches so much of a glimpse of Tori, the girl is usually flying around the corner.
Beck is…understandably confused, because he never gets as far as raising his hand in a wave or finishing the girl’s name, before she pulls a Houdini. Last week, Tori was all but hanging off his arm, but now she won’t even share a hallway with him and spends class looking straight ahead.
That plan she had to get Tori far from Beck works, but unfortunately it works, like the Monkey’s Paw, a double-edged sword. Tori wants nothing to do with Beck for the moment, but Jade, though she’ll deny it, wants a whole lot to do with Tori…and Cat. She feels sick, a feeling that grows when Beck wraps an arm loosely around her shoulder, muttering under his breath about how strange Tori’s acting.
“She’s always been weird, Beck. You’re just noticing it now,” she states firmly, trying not to think about the things she’s only now noticing about Tori, things like legs and lips and dark eyes.
He scoffs, turning to her with amusement shining clearly in his eyes. “Just because you don’t like her, doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with her.
“Sure, it does,” she insists.
He stops walking abruptly, causing her to stumble uncharacteristically. She gives him a withering look that loses its edge under the force of his stare. “What did you do?”
If it were anyone other than her, they would have probably choked at his words. Fortunately for her the surprise didn’t project itself onto her features. “Nothing,” she says coolly. “It’s like I told you, she’s normally a freak. I haven’t done anything.” Other than encouraging some surprisingly pleasant girl kissing, which, really, would’ve happened at some party eventually, she continues mentally.
A year and eleven months is too long to be with one person, she muses as Beck doesn’t back down.
“Jade, please. Tori’s a nice girl, but I’m with you. I want to be with you. I just wish you didn’t go out of your way to make things hard on her.” He doesn’t, but his eyes are pleading silently with her, begging her to drop whatever he thinks she feels about Tori and fix things.
Without answering him, she turns on her heel, leaving him standing there behind her. Saying something, even if it is the truth, just to appease him wasn’t even an option.
……………
Her plan changes to include avoiding Beck. She can't take him looking at her with eyes that scream 'fix it.' Especially when there’s no chance she’s going to fix anything with Tori in the near future or ever, if she can help it.
Unfortunately, he's the least of her problems.
Tori's avoiding her, so all her efforts are thrust upon avoiding the only person who's seems entirely unaffected by that ridiculous improv.
Cat.
Everywhere she turns Cat's there looking at her with bright eyes and a matching smile, clutching at her hand and, like, leaning on her when she laughs too hard. She starts actively looking for tracking devices on her person. The Sky Store has just about every other obscure, unnecessary device known to man; Jade's not going to put it past them to have some kind of discreet, tracking device. She's certainly not going to put it past Cat to test out one of her latest buys on a friend without telling them, especially when she was supposed to have kicked the habit.
She never finds anything, so she's pretty sure if the Robarazzi were still around there'd be pictures of her running rather paranoid and invasive body checks at random.
Jade's positive she's going to snap the next time Cat turns up.
……………
The minute Cat brings up her floating underwear; Jade wrenches her hand out of Cat’s grip, even if it’s too late. She’s already imagining Cat and pale skin and a lot less clothes. A whimper works its way out of her throat and she looks longingly at the lockers lining the hallway, wondering desperately if she’ll forget all of this if she slams her head hard enough into one.
Then Cat’s fingers dance down the inside of her wrist and right back into Jade’s hands. “Jade,” Cat whispers tilting her head and stepping closer. It’s a total invasion of her personal space bubble, which is usually a lot bigger than others. Unfortunately, her thoughts have less to do with getting Cat to understand concepts like personal space and more to do with how close Cat’s lips are in relation to hers. Clearly, the proximity is affecting her brain, because she can’t stop looking.
At least until it doesn’t matter anymore, because Cat leans forward and she must be out of her mind for not stopping the other girl. Cat's lips brush hers, soft, but not tentative.
It's not an accident, there's no way the action can be misconstrued.
Cat pulls away, too soon, but with a grin on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes.
"Why'd you do that?" Jade's slightly dazed that can be the only explanation for why the words escape a breathy whisper and she doesn't step away.
Cat giggles and runs her free hand along Jade's jaw. "You gave me the signal."
The daze lifts, because she can feel a little of her normal self returning, the part of herself that usually spends her time with Cat giving the other girl odd looks rather than thinking of her lips. "The signal," she deadpans, raising her eyebrows and taking a step back to see the other girl better.
"Duh," Cat rolls her eyes, before shifting her gaze down and up again meeting Jade's eyes. Cat steps forward, and Jade can't help it, she glances down at Cat's lips again. Clearly, she thinks as Cat closes the gap between their mouths, that was the signal.
Her hand finds Cat's hip, and as she kisses back, she wonders when she lost all her self control. When they break apart this time, her heart's hammering hard her chest.
Common sense trickles in slowly and she looks away from Cat long enough to meet Tori's gaze.
Of all the people that could've seen them together, Jade's glad it is Tori, the one person who won't spill this secret throughout the school.
Tori's bright red, mouth slightly parted with wide, dark eyes. Jade doesn't find her attractive at all, or at least that's what she'd like to tell herself, but her grip on Cat is tightening as she tenses and she's thinking of what else she could do to make the blood beneath Tori's skin rush. She's never been as grateful for Tori as she has when the girl rushes away from her sight.
"Cat," she questions after a beat. Cat tilts her head up just slightly from its space on the crook of Jade's shoulder. "Do you kiss everyone who gives you the signal?"
"Of course not…just the ones I want to kiss," she replies and as if to prove her point, she cups the back of Jade's neck and draws her close.
……………
Let it be known that even though Cat quite obviously enjoys kissing Jade, she has priorities.
“Can I-”
“No,” Jade replies sharply.
“But, I’ve never juiced a salad,” Cat whines, pushing out her lower lip and tugging at Jade’s sleeve, like a petulant child.
Jade gives her a withering look.
Her lower lip juts out impossibly further. “Tori let me juice her bagel,” she mutters.
“And what’d you have to do to get her to let you,” Jade retorts, lips curling up into a sneer.
“I might’ve kissed her,” Cat admits sheepishly.
She wants to be furious.
She should be furious.
But, she’s not. Really, Jade’s got no room to talk. Not while dating Beck, and especially not while having the thoughts about Tori that she’s having.
It doesn’t stop her from frowning and standing, turning away to buy the time she needs to formulate a proper response to that answer. She strides to the refrigerator and she’s not the least bit surprised to hear answering footsteps, though it sounds more like Cat’s skipping.
Fingers quickly wrap around her wrist, tugging until she meets Cat’s apologetic eyes. “Are you mad?”
“No,” she says quietly.
“You seem mad,” Cat wheedles, reaching up to smooth her unknowingly creased brow.
Jade figures she must be doomed, because she can’t stop her lips from lifting slightly at the action. “I’m not mad,” she repeats, looking away with a sigh.
They’re quiet for several moments, moments where she can’t help but be aware of the easy way Cat’s fingers slide to her wrist to entwine in hers.
“You know, I don’t mind if you kiss Tori.”
Only idiots choke on air and their own spit.
Jade very abruptly finds herself lumped in with the idiots. “What,” she exclaims in a voice that isn’t the least bit hysterical.
“I know you want to kiss her, too, and I don’t mind. Actually, I kind of liked watching the last time,” Cat continues with a grin and a giggle.
“I don’t want to kiss, Tori,” she hisses. The denial is futile, she realizes as Cat gives her this uncharacteristically patient look.
“Then why do you keep giving her the signal, whenever you two are actually in a room together long enough anyway.”
Cat is much too perceptive when it comes to people, Jade decides as words fail her and Cat’s mouth turns up into a victorious grin.
……………
Even though, Cat’s clearly okay with her pursuing something with Tori, something that’s clearly never happening, Jade still pulls the other girl into the nearest closet or other enclosed space at just a glimpse of the dark-haired girl. It doesn’t matter if there’s class, or Beck, who’s still sporting those ‘go fix it’ eyes. She’d rather be late than sit through class frustrated, which has nothing to do with Tori or the way Cat sometimes leaves her to go ‘hang out’ with Tori.
Hang outs, which probably have less to do with movies, cleaning tennis balls, and juicing various items, edible or otherwise, and more to do smudging lip gloss and rumpling clothes.
She is not jealous.
Not of Tori, at least.
Not when Cat makes whoever she’s with the center of her world, even if she’s missing more class than she should.
For the moment it’s enough to be close enough to Cat to count her freckles, close enough to feel the other girl exhale against her lips, but close enough is never quite enough until there’s no space between them.
Her hands are just finding the curves of Cat’s hips when she hears the unmistakable rattle of the doorknob. The heart that had been beating so frantically in her chest mere seconds ago, feels like it stops for a beat as panic freezes her in place. Just as the door swings open, she finally disentangles herself from Cat, schooling her features into a widely feared glare.
The heat of her glare cools, before flickering back, like a trick birthday candle as she meets Tori’s curious gaze.
“Hey, Tori,” Cat exclaims, waving gleefully.
“Hi, Cat,” Tori responds, her fingers clench the doorknob uneasily, before she nods. “Jade,” she greets finally.
“What are you doing here?” Jade sounds defensive, and clearly, Tori sees this, because she shifts back a step, smiling nervously.
“You two weren’t in class, so Sikowitz send me to find you guys.” She shrugs then, biting her lip as her gaze turns to Cat.
It’s obvious when Tori’s eyes widen and she starts shaking her head, blood seeping into her cheeks, that it’s not Tori she should be paying attention to. When her head snaps to the side, Cat’s already smiling innocently at her, too innocently, and not unlike the smile she offered Jade after she’d juiced Jade’s salad when she wasn’t looking.
The door shuts with a snap and the normally spacious storage closet, suddenly feels too small.
“Cat, no,” she hisses.
Cat’s lower lip pokes out and Jade starts shaking her head, it’s a vehement denial, but Tori’s steps are still drawing closer. Jade worries as her nerves begin to settle against her will when Cat’s hand touches her, and in that moment, she curses Cat, because she wants to be angry and frazzled, but she can’t hold onto those feelings with Cat’s hand on hers. Her control’s slipping.
“You want this, so does Tori, and so do I. Live a little, Jade,” Cat pleads, mouth turning up on one side, fingers contracting between hers.
She bites the inside of her cheek until copper floods her mouth, but she meets Tori’s eyes.
“Please, don’t hit me,” Tori whispers when she’s barely an inch away. Out of the corner of her eye, Jade can make out Tori fumbling for Cat’s free hand.
The air between them is intermingling, like a shadow of how their lips will. Her hand finds Tori’s hip, reveling, for a moment, in how different she feels compared to Cat.
Tori’s eyes flutter, her trembling hand meets Jade’s cheek and steadies, as if her confidence has reappeared.
Jade knows with no small amount of certainty what comes next.
She doesn’t move away.
It tastes like failure, but nothing’s ever felt this good.